In the field of additive manufacturing, many techniques exist to create structures with precise control over the features of the structure. Recently, techniques based on photo-activation of precursor components, such a projection microstereolithography (PμSL) have received significant attention. To date, such techniques have been demonstrated and proven effective for making structures that consist of crosslinked polymers in nearly any shape or configuration.
However, the structures created via these photo-activation-based additive manufacturing techniques consist of the crosslinked polymers, i.e. inert plastic. While creating such structures consisting of crosslinked polymers is itself advantageous from a manufacturing standpoint, this does not provide any chemically- and/or biologically-relevant applicability to the resulting structures.
Accordingly, it would be highly beneficial to provide techniques and suitable materials that are capable of generating structures with the precise control afforded by photo-activation-based additive manufacturing, while also enabling the resulting structure to have further functionality that is chemically- and/or biologically relevant to a variety of industrial, pharmaceutical, etc. applications.